Multi-Disc Spinning Mesh Disc Reactor (MD-SMDR) for one-pot production of Active Pharmaceutical Intermediates

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The multi-disc spinning mesh disc reactor (MD-SMDR) is a scalable and a flexible version of the SMDR. The SMDR consists of a rotating disc with a catalyst cloth resting on top of the disc. The liquid feed impinged at the centre of the disc forms a thin film with a high shear due to the centrifugal force associated with the spinning disc. This results in fast mixing within the thin liquid film and better contact with the catalyst, resulting in faster product formation. Current manufacturing uses batch technology, which is slow and inefficient relative to the SMDR, as it involves several time consuming and energy intensive downstream processing steps, especially for manufacturing high purity products. Proof of concept examples on a lab scale have shown that productivity and reaction yield was 100% higher in the SMDR with a 5-fold reduction to the reaction time compared to conventional batch reactors. The SMDR can be scaled-up to MD-SMDR through the addition of multiple discs, eliminating the need for complete reactor re-design. The design of MD-SMDR allows for multi-catalyst reactions in one-pot, which can reduce the need for intermittent product separation and purification, thus reducing the overall operations cost.The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) vertical within the pharmaceutical sector is the immediate target market for the MD-SMDR, enabling in-house production of pharmaceutical intermediates required for life saving drugs. In this project, we are carrying out the development and optimisation of the MD-SMDR for key APIs required for anticonvulsant drugs. At the end of this project, a market ready MD-SMDR version will be available for pharmaceutical companies to either lease/buy the reactor units, reducing the risk of high capital investment and market readiness of high value APIs.The current pandemic situation has heightened the importance of a reliable supply chain of pharmaceuticals and a need for flexible operation to meet the national demand. The MD-SMDR has potential to enable a paradigm shift in the production of pharmaceutical intermediates through minimum capital and operating cost and improve the global market for UK's pharmaceutical sector. Additionally, the MD-SMDR has potential to enable clean growth in pharmaceutical industries through operating in a resource efficient way (low production cost and reduced chemical waste), aligning with one of the UK's industrial strategies.